Wild Magic Ch 10 revised.

[KonokoHasano]

Whoo, finally got this one finished.

The previous version...
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/3466354/10/Wild_Magic

Wild Magic

Ranma 1/2, Slayers, Harry Potter, and any other series used in this fanfic are owned by their respective creators/publishers/whatever


"Speech"

'Thoughts'

Chapter 10


When the following morning arrived, the entire school found itself in a state of complete and total chaos. Somehow, during the course of one night, an innumerable amount of pranks had been put together and orchestrated in such a way that allowed almost everything to go off at almost exactly the same time. One such example was that nearly every toilet in the castle was set up to simultaneously explode at exactly 6:00AM, flooding many of the corridors that housed restrooms.

That was merely the very tip of the iceberg, though, as almost every single area of the school was touched in at least some way. Even all four of the school’s house common rooms suffered some form of prank, and would require cleaning to be returned to their normal appearances. It was only morning, but it already seemed as if it would take several days to both find out and fix what had been touched.

At first, it was assumed that the Weasley Twins were responsible for the school-wide prank, but it quickly became apparent that they may not have been the culprits. Not only did they seem to be as shocked as everyone else was, but neither of them would have kept silent if such a huge job as this was something that they pulled off. They would be gloating and laughing all the way to whatever kind of detention the prank netted them, and they’d still make sure to have themselves be known as the ones who caused something so wide-scale.

No, there was absolutely no way that two 13-year-olds boys -- despite having the know-how to get around the school quickly -- could possibly set up something throughout the entire school AND infiltrate all four houses, all the while making it so that everything happened at nearly the exact same thing. This was definitely way beyond what either of them were capable of.

Another possibility was peeves, but the poltergeist was both too lazy to trouble himself with something so complex, and couldn’t possibly obtain all of the needed materials to pull the entire thing off.

The only other person that they could even suspect was a certain 11-year-old, redheaded cat-girl who went by the name of Lina Inversia Malfoy. She had the abilities to get anywhere in the castle without being seen, and she could probably visit every single area of the castle in a single night by sticking to the walls, floors, and ceilings, while phasing through doors and walls to reach rooms. Following that, it would seem likely that she could infiltrate each house without needing a password to gain entry. She was like a human ghost who could be anywhere, and you wouldn’t realize it until it was too late.

However, even if they knew that it was Lina Malfoy’s doing, they were at a loss as to just how she was able to do it. How could an 11-year-old girl -- even with all of her strange abilities -- possibly plan out the entire thing without anybody else knowing? How exactly did she come to know the exact locations of the other three houses? Where did she get all of the materials necessary to pull everything off so fluidly, and just how did she carry it all around? Any other person would need a ton of preparation and time to make it happen, but she managed to carry it all out in just a few short hours.

Despite the fact that said female Malfoy sibling floated just above a large crowd of speechless students -- giggling sinisterly with an expression of barely contained amusement, -- did not mean that she was the culprit. After-all, her finding the ordeal absolutely hilarious could have merely meant that she had an odd sense of humor. Plus, there was no proof to show that it was her doing, so even if they knew, they couldn’t really do anything unless she came out and admitted it, and it didn’t seem as if she was going to anytime soon.

“So you really were the one who caused that entire prank?” Hermione asked with a frown as she accompanied Ranma, Gosaria, and Nashigi outside of the school. “How could you do something so irresponsible?” She added with a small frown. She couldn’t help but admit to herself secretly, though, that it was amazing how Lina was able to orchestrate such a huge event by herself. Still, she had to have at least broken almost every rule in doing so, and yet she managed to get away without any trouble.

“I was bored.” Ranma said simply with a straight face. “There’s no excitement in this place, and since every single class is so mind-numbingly easy, I have almost nothing to do to occupy my time. I had to do something to liven up this place.”

“Well, I can agree with you on the fact that all of the classes are rather easy.” Hermione replied as they all sat under a tree. “I mean, as long as people have read the text books and pay attention in class, there really should be no reason for anybody to constantly get behind in their work.” Of course, it still took her some time to get through homework, because she often needed to go back and re-read certain parts of the involved chapter pages. As such, while she could be done with her work before many others, she didn’t quite have an immense amount of time on her hands. Just how was Lina able to get through her homework quick enough to have so much free time?

“You did all of that just because you were bored?” Nashigi asked with a raised eyebrow, right before clasping onto the younger girl’s hand and giving the top of it a gentle pat. “Oh silly Lina; if only you would have told your dear friends. If you had, we could have helped you with your excruciatingly painful boredom.”

Gosaria gave a large smile as she glomped onto the redhead’s shoulders. “Yeah, we could have come up with a lot of fun things to do! That’s what friends are for, right?”

‘I’m almost afraid to even know what they would be.’ Ranma thought to herself. Although, it probably would have been a lot better that way, because not being bored was better than being so. “Yeah, I guess you have a point.” She mumbled slightly before deciding to aim a question towards Hermione. “So how did both you and Neville get stuck with both Harry and Freckles last night?” During her sneaking around, she had actually spotted the group, but decided to continue on with her plans.

“Oh, you saw us?” The bushy-haired girl asked. “Well, I tried to stop the both of them as they were heading out to meet your brother.”

“They actually thought that Draco was going to duel them?” Ranma asked in amused disbelief. “What were they thinking about doing? Shooting multi-colored sparks at each other from the tip of their wands?” Unless they did any reading, they wouldn’t even have any worthwhile attack spells that could be used in a fight. Other than a mere mention of the Curse of the Bogies by Quirrell, no professor has even taught an offensive spell yet. “But why did you keep following after them?”

A faint blush appeared on Hermione’s cheeks. “I got locked out of Gryffindor due to the fat lady having gone somewhere else, so I couldn’t give a password to get back in. Neville was actually sleeping out in the hall, having forgotten the password.”

‘Definitely a kind of mini-Seina.’ Ranma thought with a sweat-drop.

“How did all of you get around without being caught?” Nashigi asked. After-all, neither of them had any powers that would allow them to sneak about without fear of getting caught.

Hermione explained about how they managed to somehow get to the trophy room without a hitch, and after waiting a few moments, they heard both Mr. Filch and Mrs. Norris heading towards them. Due to this, they had to quickly make their way to some kind of safety, and unknowingly found their way to the forbidden third floor corridor. They ended up at a locked door that Hermione had to unlock with the alohomora spell so that they could get inside and hide.

“So you ended up meeting the three-headed dog?” Ranma inquired as she leaned back against the tree. This caused all three girls to look right at her.

It was Nashigi and Gosaria’s turn to ask a question. “Three-headed dog?”

The cat-girl gave a simple nod. “Yeah, it lives up in a room on the forbidden corridor. It’s a huge thing with three heads full of razor sharp teeth. It must be at least over two meters tall, and its paws seem large enough to crush whole garbage bins. I encountered it last week when I was exploring this place.”

“I don’t think I want to run into that.” Gosaria stated softly with a shiver.

Hermione gave Ranma a concerned look. “That thing almost ate us. Since you met it, you must understand how scary it is, right?”

“Err-- Well,” Ranma began as she scratched the base of her ponytail. “I kind of scared it.”

“You… scared a three-headed, vicious monster dog all by yourself?” Hermione honestly didn’t know if she could believe that. “What did you do to it?”

The cat-girl’s cheeks turned pink. “I looked at it in the eyes, and the next thing I knew, it was cowering in fear.” She really wished that the other three would stop staring at her like she was crazy. It was at that moment that she wished something would happen to serve as a distraction.

Her prayers were answered when a faint beeping signal could be heard, causing the three girls sitting next to her to look around in confusion and wondering where the sound was coming from. Ranma, knowing exactly what it was, pulled back the sleeves of her robe and undershirt to reveal a thin, black fabric wristband. A small circular portion of it was lit up, and the low beeps could be heard coming from it.

Nashigi and Gosaria leaned in close to have a closer look at the object that was making the noise. The both of them had just assumed that it was a decorative wristband that the redhead liked to wear, so they never really wondered anything about it.

“Why is it doing that?” Hermione asked with an obvious amount of curiosity. Could it have been some kind of magical item?

“It’s because I’m getting a call.” Ranma answered as she pulled out Stringy 2.0 from her subspace pocket, causing the trio to blink at the small black hole that appeared in front of the cat-girl. They watched as the small, circular device popped out of the hole and into the redhead’s hands.

Hermione recognized it right away. “That’s your laptop, isn’t it? Electronics shouldn’t even be able to work here at Hogwarts due to the magic interference.”

“Yarn-ball shaped,” Nashigi commented as she raised her eyebrow in amusement. “Even your computer shows just who you are.”

“That’s a computer?” Gosaria asked as she moved closer. She had heard of them before, but never had the chance to see one close up. “It looks so small.”

Ranma looked at the bushy-haired girl as she flipped open Stringy. “That’s because the magic is a form of invisible energy wave that’s given off when too much mana is present in such an enclosed space, and since this place is a magical school, you can imagine just how dense the magic is. You can think of it as a form of radio wave, but on a much different frequency that is hard to detect by normal technology, and it can interfere with how well a technological device works. However, if you know what to look for, then you can develop objects that are able to easily drown out the mana so that it all ends up becoming a non-issue.” The cat-girl finished with a small wink.

‘I guess that makes sense.’ Hermione thought with a series of blinks. It was slowly becoming more and more obvious as to just how intelligent the girl before her was. Lina mentioned that she learned most of what she knew from a teacher she had, and so the brunette couldn’t help but feel an incredible desire to know just who this woman was.

As she looked at the screen of her laptop, Ranma could tell that the message was from Washu, due to the small crab hopping up and down. Quickly pressing the button to answer, the screen quickly changed to show a woman that -- from what the redhead’s companions could see -- had long, spiky red hair and large, emerald green eyes.

“Long time no see, my cute little student!” The universal genius greeted happily with a wave. She quickly took notice of the three girls trying to look at the screen. “It seems that you’re doing a good job of making friends, Lina-chan.” Since there were others in the area, and she figured that Ranma never told them that name, she switched to using Lina.

“Chan?” Gosaria asked. She couldn’t help but feel amazed by the device that she was looking at.

“It’s a Japanese honorific.” Ranma answered before turning her attention back to Washu. “Err-- Yeah, Washu-chan, I’d like you to meet Hermione, Nashigi, and Gosaria.”

Hermione turned to look at the cat-girl. “So she’s your teacher that you mentioned before?” She was actually expecting someone who seemed a lot older, but the woman on the screen didn’t appear to be very old.

“Correct,” Washu piped up, “I’ve been teaching Lina-chan for years.” The diminutive genius placed her hands together as her eyes began to sparkle. “She was such an adorable little girl; always getting into all sorts of mischief. I remember one time--”

“Washu-chan!” Ranma said in a panic as she attempted to stop the woman. There was just no telling what embarrassing stories she would try and get out.

Nashigi gave a slight pout. “Ooohhh, but Lina, I wanted to hear what ended up getting into.” She quickly found herself rubbing the spot on the back of her head where the redhead hit her with her paper fan.

Washu couldn’t help but smile in amusement; it was just so fun to tease the younger redhead. “So how’s everything going over there at Hogwarts? Are you learning a plethora of new things that are allowing you to keep your mind sharp?”

“Well…” Ranma trailed off as she scratched the base of her ear. “Everything over here is just too boring.” She finally said. “The classes are too easy, and the homework doesn’t even take that long to get through.”

“I see.” Washu answered as she placed a finger to her lips. Having her only student be bored due to not enough stimulus was definitely a bad that. “So this means that you have too much time on your hands, with no real way to deal with it?”

The cat-girl gave a nod. “Yeah, it’s the absolute worst.”

Her teacher crossed her arms together and put on a show of attempting to think of a solution. “I think I know exactly how to help you, my adorable star student.” She said with a bit of a laugh right before the screen turned black.

“Where’d she go?” Gosaria asked.

Ranma gave a small shrug. “Probably deciding what textbooks and assignments to send me to help me get over my problem.” She proceeded to close Stringy before sending it back to subspace.

Nashigi gave off a laugh. “Fighting boredom with more work? Oh my, Lina, you really are a character.”

“I can understand that.” Hermione said. “It’s always fun to learn as much as you can, and so if you have enough work for that, you can be occupied.”

Their blonde companion gave a frown. “Eh? That sounds really boring.”

“Oi, Lina!” A couple voices announced, causing the redhead to lift her head. She quickly noticed that it was coming from Fred and George as the two made their way over to the tree. Before the cat-girl could say anything, she was quickly pulled to her feet, before finding a pair of arms resting on her shoulders. “It’s obvious to us that you’re the one who managed to pull the prank.” George said. The girl had the ability to ‘apparate’ within the school, and she could also move through things and fly. “You gotta tell us how you did it.”

“It has to be the single greatest prank in Hogwarts history.” Fred added, before wiping a fake tear from his eyes. “Filch will probably never fully get the sticky slime feeling out of his hair, and Mrs. Norris will probably be smelling like she does for months. The both of us are rather hurt that you left us out of the loop.”

“Hey,” Ranma began with a sweat as she raised her hands, “I only really thought about doing it yesterday during Flying Lessons, and I didn’t get to planning it until later that evening.” There wasn’t really any time to inform them that she was going to do it.

Five pairs of eyes blinked at her, followed by the twins making a motion of cleaning out their ears. “Sorry, but did you say that you only started planning that marvelous prank yesterday evening?” Fred asked, wondering if he heard right.

“Well… yeah.”

“I fear that we have already been surpassed in the realms of prankster greatness, Fred.” George said with a slow shake of his head. “Lina here has put everything we’ve done since coming here to shame, and she even got away without any kind of trouble.”

Ranma’s lips twitched into a smirk as she teleported out of her position, only to reappear with her arms hanging around both boys’ shoulders. “Hey, c’mon, I’m sure that you guys will end up thinking of some kind of outstanding prank that blows mine out of the water.” They were much more serious about the aspect than she really was. “And maybe I could even give you guys some help in getting to the harder to reach areas?”

The very notion of being able to create a prank that outshined the cat-girl’s was a hard one to imagine, but the Weasley Twins couldn’t help but find their minds racing in an attempt to come up with one. The sheer thought of putting both their minds and Lina’s together to create the ultimate prank was one that was rife with potential. “Lina, you are definitely our kind of girl.”

“I am awesome, aren’t I?” The redheaded girl asked with a small wink.

“Now wait a minute, Lina.” Hermione piped up with her hands on her hips. “What if you get into really bad trouble?” After this, they’ll probably be keeping a much closer eye, and if it happens again, then some kind of detention -- or worse -- would probably be a sure bet.

Ranma floated over to the spot next to the bushy-haired girl. “I doubt I have to worry about that, because I can get places without having to really worry about detection, so I doubt I’ll end up getting caught.”

“So my precious little student has become nothing more than a delinquent since coming here, eh?” A voice asked from behind.

“Well I wouldn’t really say--” Ranma came to a dead halt as the voice quickly registered in her mind. Every so slowly, she turned her head so that she could look behind her, and what she saw caused her to sweat. “Umm-- Hi Washu-chan!”

To the side of the tree stood Washu, her arms crossed in front of her as a calm expression -- akin to a parent staring down at a disobedient child -- was etched on her face. Uncrossing her arms, the crab-haired genius placed a finger to the side of her cheek and gave off a rather innocent look. “I was quite saddened to hear that you have been forced to endure such boring times, and so I decided to pop right on over, both to see if I could talk to your headmaster to see if I could provide you with some extra work to keep you occupied, and to see you for the first time since right at the start of August.” Washu proceeded to clasp her hands together and go into a show of dramatics. “But what do I hear when I get here? My dear little Lina-chan has become such a bad little kitty, when she was such a diligent and good one only less than two months ago.”

Hermione, Nashigi, and Gosaria blinked at seeing the woman. They were curious to know just how she got there so fast, and they were also surprised that she was shorter than they imagined she would be. Fred and George had the same reaction, but there’s was more along the lines of wondering just who this woman was, and how she knew Lina.

Ranma’s reaction was completely different from everyone else’s. The cat-girl was laughing nervously as sweat ran down her cheek. “You can’t really blame me for being bored and needing to create some excitement, Washu-chan.” She said as she took several steps back while holding her hands out in front of her. Her crimson tail was positioned between her knees, and her ears were flattened on top of her head. “Err-- I think I actually still have some homework, so if you’ll excuse me…” She spun around, but found that the universal genius was already in front of her.

“Did she just teleport like Lina?” Nashigi asked with a small hint of shock.

Gosaria nodded. “It looks like it. Maybe Lina learned how to do it from her?”

Washu’s hand quickly lashed out and grabbed hold of one of Ranma’s ears. “A teacher mustn’t look the other way when a student of theirs starts misbehaving. You’re coming with me, young lady.” She said as she started pulling the smaller redhead towards the castle.

“Ow, hey, let go!” Ranma yelled out as she attempted to struggle, but it was to no use as the hand pulling her ear was firm. She could see that everyone near the tree was staring in complete confusion and shock at her being dragged off. “C’mon Washu-chan, this is so embarrassing!”

As she dragged the cat-girl through the castle entrance, Washu quickly started to gain the attention of several students who couldn’t help but wonder who she was, and why she was dragging the resident cat-girl by the ear. It wasn’t long before Prof. McGonagall appeared on the scene.

“May I ask just who you are?” McGonagall asked as she confronted the diminutive woman, who seemed to be old enough to be a student of the school. However, she couldn’t recall ever seeing her, and she was sure that she’d remember a redheaded girl with such an interesting hairstyle. “I would also like to know why you are dragging around a student of this school by the ear.”

Washu gave the woman in green a pleasant smile as she pulled Ranma in front of her and rested a hand on her head. “I’m merely here to speak to the headmaster regarding this delightful little girl. You see, she’s visited Japan quite a bit over the years, and I’ve always been there to serve as a teacher to her; guiding her along the path of knowledge so that she could be well-educated. It has been such a joy to teach her, because she soaks up everything like a sponge.”

‘She certainly does.’ McGonagall thought to herself with a slight nod. It was obvious that Lina -- along with Hermione -- had the capability of becoming the top of the year, and teaching those that learn quickly did feel enjoyable. That, however, wasn’t her priority at the moment. “I find it a little hard to believe that you are a teacher. You seem far too young to actually have been able to teach this girl ‘over the years’, as you say.”

Washu placed a finger to her lips. “Well, I admit that I do look quite young. It’s so hard to believe that someone with such an adorable and dainty form as I would be old enough to be able to teach.”

“They’d think differently if they knew your true age.” Ranma mumbled as she glanced off to the side. Unfortunately for her, it was loud enough for both McGonagall and Washu to hear, earning a hard pinch to the cheek. “Hey, it’s only the truth! It’s not my fault that you’re old enough togah--” She quickly found both of her cheeks being pulled.

“Still as cheeky as ever, I see.” Washu said before turning her attention back to McGonagall. “But yes, even though I am so very youthful in appearance, I am much older than I seem.” She removed her hands from Ranma’s cheeks before wrapping her arms around the girl’s neck. “I haven’t seen my adorable little student in so long, and so I decided to stop by and see how she was doing.” A pout quickly popped into existence. “But then I managed to overhear that she’s been such a naughty little child, causing trouble and pulling silly little pranks due to having too little to occupy her time. As such, I decided to speak to the headmaster about her being such a deviant.”

“Washu-chaaaan…” Ranma whined out in total embarrassment. There was a large crowd surrounding them, and she could hear quite a few sniggers.

“So she really did pull that prank?” McGonagall asked as she turned her attention to the young cat-girl. She could see that the small redhead was looking off to the side, as if she didn’t want to meet her eyes. Looking back at the other redhead, McGonagall gave her a long look in an attempt to decide if she should believe that this girl was really older than she appeared. “Very well, I’ll direct you to the headmaster.”

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ranma found herself staring down at her feet as she sat in a chair in Dumbledore’s office for the second time in a week. However, unlike the last time, there was a third person in the room. This third person was someone that the cat-girl did not want present to hear about a few of the more… severe issues that she had been a part of since arriving. While she tended to get in her fair share of troublesome situations over the past nine years -- especially when Ryoko was involved, -- she knew that there were certain things to be avoided. Messing around when she should be learning, or showing disobedience in a school-like environment, were things that Washu definitely frowned upon.

“My, so you really have been busy, Lina-chan.” Washu said with a smile as she pinched the younger redhead’s cheek. Even though the universal genius was giving off a calm and pleasant exterior, Ranma knew that the wheels in the woman’s head were turning in an effort to dole out a suitable punishment. She could very well sense it. Nine years of being around the woman allowed her to search out those little signs, and Washu understood that. “But I’m curious to know why none of this has been reported to her mother.”

“Well, I didn’t really think that the situations really called for it.” Dumbledore responded as he tapped his fingers together. “You see, I could tell that Lina was genuinely bothered about losing her temper as serious as she did, and that issue was rectified during a talk that we had last week.” He sat back in his chair. “And as for her prank and setting foot where she shouldn’t, I agree that it shouldn’t be overlooked; especially now that she’s basically admitted it.” The elderly wizard said as he turned his attention towards the subdued cat-girl. “However, I will admit that the results of her prank were most amusing, and it allowed a sense of excitement that this school has definitely been lacking for the last few years.” It was also the first time in his life that he had witnessed a large group of cats get together in one place and sing. It was out of tune, yes, but it was still impressive.

Washu gave a small nod. “I can understand that. Having a school where nothing seems to be happening at all tends to make it feel torturous to remain at all day, every day.” She remembered how Jurai Royal Academy was such an interesting place that had many ways to keep one from being bored. “Still, knowing full well that a student has been disobeying the rules is not something that should be ignored. Leniency is not something that should be practiced with a student such as this one.” The universal genius said as she gave the younger redhead next to her a pat on. “I’ve known her for years, and so I’m quite aware of the fact that being soft on her tends to not work all that well. It is best to punish her accordingly in a way that would make it so that she knows very well to refrain from stepping out of line, due to the consequences.”

“Well then, what would you suggest?” Dumbledore asked. “If it seems to be too harsh of a punishment, I don’t think I would be able to allow it to occur within this school.”

The diminutive genius laughed. “What I have in mind is very simple.” Her eyes turned to look at the young cat-girl next to her. “This adorable little scamp has mentioned how she has been so incredibly bored without any real stimuli, so I think it would probably be best if I help supplement her lessons by adding onto her current workload with my own brand of assignments and work.”

Dumbledore stroked his beard in thought. “But how can that be a suitable punishment that will keep her from getting out of line?”

“It’s simple.” Washu answered. “More work will mean that she has less time to sit around and plan any mischief, or be bothered to actually get into it.” She turned her head to look at the small cat-girl. “You did say that you have been bored due to not having all enough work, right Lina-chan?”

“Err-- Yeah.” Ranma said as she began to sweat.

“Well then, you won’t have to worry about that anymore, because we’re going to be continuing where we left off.” The older redhead placed a finger to her lips. “However, I do believe that we are almost a month and a half behind in your lessons.”

Ranma’s left eye began to twitch. “But you said that I wouldn’t have to worry about lessons for a while!”

“Schedules change, oh cute and precious student of mine.” Washu replied with a smile.

The 11-year-old couldn’t help but feel a hint of doom swell up from within her. It was actually nice that they were continuing their lessons, but the fact that they were a whole month and a half behind…

“I’m afraid that I must state my concerns with that.” Dumbledore said, causing Ranma to give off a small sigh of relief. “You see, even though we’re just about to head into the third week of the school term, Lina has shown that she is an exceptional student. As of this moment, she is ahead of all of the other first year students, along with one other girl. Such academic performance such as that is not something that should be impeded on.” His eyes twinkled as he glanced towards the cat-girl.

Ranma couldn’t help but scratch the base of her ponytail at the praise. She was just so used to the usual workload from Washu, and so her current amount of work seemed miniscule compared to it. She also had pride in her intelligence, and so the idea of another person passing her up was not something that she could stand. She was a student of Washu’s, so there was absolutely no way she could allow herself to lose to another person.

“Oh, I understand, headmaster.” Washu nodded. “We wouldn’t want her to start dropping in performance, and so I have the perfect solution that would allow her to know just how important it is to keep both aspects of her studies from falling.”

The feeling of doom that the younger redhead felt had returned, but this time, it was even stronger.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

If you were to ask Ranma what doom felt like, the most likely answer that you would get was that it was it consisted of nothing but books and paperwork. To some, this wouldn’t sound all that horrible, but those same people would never experience what it was like to be a student of Washu. The young redheaded cat-girl would have gladly accepted any punishment for her rule breaking, as long as it didn’t come from Washu. She would have been willing to go through months of detention, sent out into the Forbidden Forest, or be put through whatever else they used on those who misbehaved. However, for Washu to have a hand in deciding the punishment meant that her time at Hogwarts would be hell.

For starters, she had a whole month and a half worth of lesson work from Washu. Since a typical day’s lesson from the woman consisted of five different subjects, she already had a full day’s worth of work ahead of her for who knows how long.

School itself was another issue that the cat-girl had to deal with. Even though Ranma found Hogwarts to be a breeze, with the class work easy to get through, the class homework still took at least an hour to two hours to do. As such, it would eat into the time that she could use for her work from Washu.

The largest problem came in the form of a threat that Washu had given to her. By the end of the school year, she was expected to succeed in catching up to the woman’s current lesson plans. That meant that she would have to successfully get through the backlog of work that had built up, manage to catch up, and keep that pace. She was also expected to continue on with her Hogwarts studies and stay on top without slipping. As such, she couldn’t ignore her school work to focus on her other work, or ignore her other work to focus on her school work. If she couldn’t succeed in accomplishing one or the other, then Washu had a few ‘fun’ experiments in mind for the small cat-girl to take part in.

It quickly became a regular scene to see the young redhead with her nose deep within a book, reading various odd and strange subjects that nobody seemed to really understand. Even Hermione was at a loss when it came to all of the complex mathematics and science books the girl toted around. In the Slytherin common room, seeing her sitting on the floor with several books and written notes strewn about her was a surefire thing. The area around her bed had also become a scene full of books and notes taped to the wall near her bed.

This workload meant that Ranma would literally be working non-stop, with her only true breaks coming when she was eating, bathing, or sleeping. Any other time would mean that she was working on some kind of an assignment. One thing was for certain, it definitely kept her out of any kind of trouble, because she didn’t have time to do anything other than work. However, while she had hoped that Washu would have given her some work to do, obtaining this much was definitely not something she was happy about.

After almost a whole week since this began, Ranma was already feeling the affects. Her entire body felt tired due to having to constantly read chapters or write out notes and answers to questions. While she was able to get some sleep, and was able to function, it wasn’t enough to keep her completely well-rested.

“And here I’ve been thinking that McGonagall was strict when it came to work.” Nashigi commented as she ate breakfast. “This Washu woman really knows how to be a monster when it comes to assignments.” It was the following Thursday, and everyone could see just how tired and exhausted the cat-girl was.

“I’ve had the chance to meet her a few times.” Draco said as he went to work cutting pieces off of his egg. “She’s strange, but she also comes off as someone that you shouldn’t cross.”

“But isn’t all of this a little excessive?” Gosaria asked with a hint of worry. She didn’t know how the redhead was able to keep on going with all of the work she was doing, and how tired and exhausted she looked. “Maybe you should get in contact with her and see if you can get her to lower how much work you have to do.”

Ranma slowly shook her head in response. “There’s no way that I’m going to beg Washu to lower my work-load. I can handle this, and I’ll show her that I can get it all done by the end of the year.” She gave off a slight maniacal cackle as she picked up a slice of bacon. “Heeheehee… I’m a student of the great Washu, so how could a little bit of learning defeat me?” Besides, she knew that if she did just that, Washu would either respond by giving her more work, embarrass her by making proclamations of how cute she was when overworked, dramatically state how ‘disappointed’ she was that the cat-girl was unable to handle a little work, or any number of annoying things.

“I think Kitty Ears has finally snapped…” Pansy said with a raised eyebrow.

“Have not, pug nose.” The redhead said as she pointed the slice of bacon at the short-haired girl. “I’m not gonna be broken by a bunch of silly bookwork.”

Before anything else could be said, the usual flood of mail brought by owls began to arrive. Despite her tiredness, Ranma found herself staring at a long, thin package that was being carried by six large screech owls. “It kinda looks like a broom or something.” She said as she watched the package drop off in front of Harry.

Her brother’s lips turned into an obvious frown. “What? But it shouldn’t be possible for a first year to have a broom.” The blond’s eyes narrowed as he watched both Harry and Ron get up from the Gryffindor table. “C’mon Crabbe, Goyle.” He said as he stood up and left the Great Hall with the two boys accompanying him.

Feeling curious about what was going on, and why Harry had a broom, Ranma made a quick teleport and appeared outside of the Great Hall. Upon spotting everyone at the end of the entrance hall, she disappeared into the floor and stealthily made her way over in an attempt to listen to the conversation.

“That’s a broomstick.” She heard her brother say, and from her vantage point, she could make out the nasty look on his face. “You’ll be in for it this time, Potter, first years aren’t allowed to have them.”

“It’s not any old broomstick.” Ron answered back. Ranma may not have been able to see the Weasley boy’s face, but she could feel the smugness radiating off of him. “It’s a Nimbus 2000. What did you say that you’ve got at home, Malfoy, a Comet 260?” The cat-girl could see her brother’s eyes narrow. “Comets look flashy, but they’re not in the same league as the Nimbus.”

“What would you know about it, Weasley?” Draco snapped back. “You couldn’t afford half the handle. I suppose you and your brothers have to save up twig by twig.”

Before Ron could reply, Prof. Flitwick quickly appeared at Draco’s elbow. “Not arguing, I hope, boys?” He squeaked. Due to his small form, he was able to easily see the upper part of Ranma’s head poking out from the floor. “And a good morning to you, too, Miss Malfoy. What are you doing down there?”

The group of boys blinked in confusion, right before the small cat-girl rose up from the floor. “I was just curious to know what was going on, professor.” Ranma answered with an innocent look. “I noticed that Harry seemed to have gotten a broomstick, but since first years shouldn’t be able to have one, I wanted to know why he was able to.”

“Yeah,” Her brother added, “Why does he have one?”

“Ah yes, that’s right.” The tiny professor answered, beaming at Harry. “Prof. McGonagall told me all about the special circumstances, Potter. What model is it?”

“A Nimbus 2000.” Harry said. “And it’s really thanks to Malfoy here that I’ve got it.”

Flitwick nodded excitedly. “That truly is a great model.” Bidding them farewell, he quickly made his way into the Great Hall. Once he was gone, Ranma chose that moment to speak.

“Eh? You mean that the broom was obtained by your head of house?” Ranma asked with a bit of a frown. “How did you manage that?”

Harry gave a shrug. “When McGonagall took me away from Flying Lessons, she took me to the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.”

“Uh-huh,” The cat-girl answered as she placed a finger to her chin. “So you’re basically getting rewarded, when any normal person who did that probably would have gotten in serious trouble.” She found herself feeling annoyed at the very notion. The boy was constantly being talked up without ever showing anything of interest.

Ron chose that moment to speak up. “What, are you also jealous that Harry has the best broom in the world?” He asked with a monstrous smirk. The idea of pissing off both Malfoy siblings was just too much to pass up. “The teachers just noticed Harry’s talent is all.”

“The best broom in the world doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have the skill, Freckles.” Ranma answered as she scratched the base of her ponytail. “To a skilled flier, even an older model broom could get the job done just as well as a newer model. Yes, it did seem as if Potter had some talent from when he caught that Remembrall, but,” She placed a hand on the bespectacled boy’s shoulder, “Don’t go thinking that just because you have a Nimbus 2000, you’re the top dog.” Stepping away from him, Ranma gave a small wave as she began to walk away to rejoin her friends in the Great Hall. If she could, she would have challenged the boy to see just what he was able to do.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[KonokoHasano]

Setting her text book down onto the floor amidst a large pile of paper and notes, Ranma leaned against the emerald sofa behind her and placed a hand to her face. Using her fingers, she began to rub her eyes. “Too much work.” She mumbled to herself.

“They’re starting to bother you, momma?” Laira asked from her position on the sofa’s arm. “You have been doing a lot of work, so it makes sense.”

“What’s been bothering you?” Nashigi asked as she ate from a bag of Every Flavor Beans. “Your eyes?”

Gosaria snatched a bean from the bag and popped it into her mouth. “My eyes would be hurting too.” Her eyes quickly snapped as her hands flew to her mouth. “Hot, hot, hot, hot!!” She yelled out as her eyes watered. The bean that she had managed to get was a habanero-flavored one. The blonde quickly grabbed a bottle of Pumpkin Juice and downed it in one gulp. Giving a relieved sigh, she fell backwards onto her back. “So just take a small break.” She said in a calm manner that betrayed the excited way that she was previously acting in.

“It’s not my eyes.” Ranma said as she removed her hand from her face. “It’s these things.” She added as she showed the two what was in her hand.

Nashigi blinked as she leaned forward to get a better look. “Contacts? I didn’t know that you wore those.”

“You have bad vision?” Gosaria asked as she sat up.

Both she and Nashigi’s questions caused the others who were in the room to stop and listen. The very subject of the cat-girl not being able to see well was an interesting one to most.

“I wouldn’t really call it ‘bad vision’.” Ranma said as she closed her eyes. “Those contacts are specially made to prevent my eyes from collecting too much light, and so that my pupils don’t become totally slit during the day. They still narrow and become slit-like, but that’s about it.” She opened her eyes again and turned to look at her friends. “The accident that changed me didn’t really go all that smoothly, because despite having eyes that are similar to a cat’s, my vision is permanently fuzzy.”

Gosaria raised a hand. “How many fingers?”

“Two,” The cat-girl said as she rolled her eyes. “I can actually see most things relatively well with just a slight fuzz around them. However, my vision is totally shot when it comes to making out words in a book.” Glancing down at the pair of contacts within her hand, she gave her head a small shake. “I need to give my eyes a rest from these.”

“So you’re going to take a break in doing work?” Gosaria asked as she popped another bean into her mouth. “Bleh… sour.”

Ranma shook her head as she reached into her subspace pocket. Pulling out a small case, she opened it to reveal a pair of thin-rimmed, oval glasses. “These things perform the same function as my contacts.” She said as she slipped them on. When she stared back at her friends, she became annoyed when they started to bust out in laughter. “Hey, shut up!”

“I think they suit her.” Laira announced with a pout. “The glasses show off her intellectual side really nicely.”

A smirk appeared on the cat-girl’s lips as she placed a hand to her chin. “They do, don’t they?” She asked as the light reflected off of the lenses. At least her daughter understood.

“Nope,” Gosaria said as she leaned forward so that she was just a few centimeters from the redhead’s face. “I’m looking, but I don’t see it.”

“If anything,” Nashigi began, “They make you look cute and unassuming, perhaps a little on the mousy side.”

Ranma gave a rather large groan. “Noooo… not more cuteness!” Wasn’t the fact that she was a cat-girl who looked smaller and more child-like than she actually was enough? “And who are you calling mousy?!” She asked as she quickly spun around to glare at the older girl.

“Oohohoho,” The older girl laughed in amusement, “So the idea of being cute bothers you, eh?” She asked as she leaned forward and gave the cat-girl a pat on the head. “But, Lina, there’s no use trying to run away from the truth. You’re an adorable little kitty girl, and that’s all there is to it.”

“Yeah? Well how would you like a trip into the lake?”

Gosaria gave the redhead a poke on the shoulder. “Lina, your tail knocked one of your papers away.”

“Huh?” Ranma asked as she turned back around to see that the sheet of paper -- one where she had just finished writing down a series of complex formulas and notes -- was drifting slowly towards an older Slytherin student by the name of Lucian Bole. “Hey, could you get that?” The cat-girl called out.

Feeling slightly nervous over being addressed by the redheaded, the boy gave a nod as he caught the piece of paper. Instead of giving it back to her right away, though, he gave it a look-over to see what was on it. “What in the bloody hell is this stuff?”

“They’re my notes on the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle that’s present in Quantum Mechanics.” Ranma said as she floated over to him. Closing her eyes, she attempted to remember what it was that she learned from the subject. “He was a physicist who concluded that the accurate measurement of one of two related, observable quantities such as position and momentum produce uncertainties in the measurement of the other. He figured that the product of the uncertainties of position and the uncertainties of momentum are equal to or greater than h over 2 pi, where the h equals Planck’s constant. It means that observations in quantum mechanics always lead to uncertainty.” When she reopened her eyes, she noticed that her explanation seemed to have caused everyone to stare at her strangely. ‘Smooth move, Ranma. You caused them all to think that you’re even more of a weirdo.’

“I… have absolutely no clue what you just said.” Lucian Boyle finally answered in a daze as he prepared to hand the paper back to the redhead. However, another hand reached out to grab it.

“Lemme see what it looks like.” Peregrine Derrick said as he pulled the note paper from his fellow Beater’s hand. In the process of snatching it, though, the paper ripped in half. “Oops,” He let out upon noticing his blunder, “I ripped it.” He added, not sounding all that bothered. “I’m sure that you can rewrite it, right?” The boy asked as he glanced down at the redheaded cat-girl, only to see something that made both him and Lucian nervous.

“You ripped it…” Ranma said slowly as the light reflected off of her spectacles. “Do you know how long it took me to write all of that down?” The shine faded from her right lens, but revealed an angry looking and tired crimson eye.

Lucian and Boyle gave off a simultaneous eep as they stepped back and raised their hands in front of them. The two halves of the paper they were holding drifted out of their hands and floated down onto the floor.

Bending down, Ranma picked up both pieces of her torn up work. She then turned around and made her way back to her seat in front of the sofa. As she sat down, she stared back in the direction of the two boys, her lenses glowing much more sinisterly than before. It may have been a trick of the light, but everyone still in the room could have sworn that they saw a faint aura of blackness around the cat-girl’s body.

“You’re lucky I can repair it.” Ranma said as she quickly cast a Reparo spell, causing both pieces to mend together. “Otherwise, I’d be forcing the both of you to rewrite the whole thing.” The sinister chuckling that accompanied this caused everyone to nervously gulp.

Laira couldn’t help but sweat-drop. “Momma, you’re acting like Washu again.”

That caused the redhead to stiffen slightly. “I do NOT act like Washu! She’s a mad scientist, and I’m--”

“A mad scientist’s apprentice?” The cabbit interrupted with an innocent look, earning a small pinch to the cheek for the statement. “Alright, you’re not crazy like Washu.”

Ranma nodded as she released her daughter’s cheek. “I’m glad you see the truth.” She’d rather sit in a tub of slugs before admitting that she acted like Washu.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A sigh of relief exited Ranma’s lips as she lay comfortably on a tree branch. After almost three weeks of non-stop, exhausting work, Washu decided to show some compassion and leniency by lowering the amount that she needed to do. Instead of having to finish a back-log of a month an a half’s worth of work before the end of the school year, she now had a weekly schedule detailing what reading and/or assignments were required for her to finish by the end of that week. The apparent reasoning behind this was that the crab-haired genius realized just how impossible it would be for her to keep up with the previous pace without the possibility of suffering some kind of nervous breakdown.

It was just too bad that she already had suffered from a breakdown earlier in the week. After two and a half weeks of doing nothing but stressing herself by reading text books, writing notes, and working on assignments, she had fallen deep asleep in the library, only to be woken up a couple hours later by Hermione. The entire event was too blurry to remember correctly due to her being drowsy and overworked at the time, but she had apparently collapsed onto her friend’s shoulders while babbling nonsense. She couldn’t remember anything else, but she just KNEW that she had embarrassed herself in some way.

At least she wouldn’t have to go through that ordeal anymore. As long as she didn’t get into anymore trouble with Washu, because that woman definitely knew what kind of punishments would affect her the most. There was no doubt in her mind that a large part of the reasoning behind the change in her work load was due to her ‘loveable teacher’ feeling that she had been punished enough, but who was she to argue if she got a little more freedom out of the change? She was still busy, but not overwhelmed like she had previously been.

“As long as I don’t get into anymore real trouble, I should be fine.” Ranma mumbled to herself as her tail hung off of the branch.

An amused voice answered her back. “Are you sure that you can manage something like that?”

“You’ve gotta be kidding me.” Ranma said as she sat up and turned her head towards the direction of the voice. There, on one of the other branches, was Xellos, sitting comfortably as if nothing was wrong. “I haven’t had to see your annoying face in nine years, but now, all of a sudden, you’re popping out of the woodwork.”

Xellos gave the redhead a mock frown. “Now is that any way to treat someone who is trying to check up on a friend’s health?”

“You’re anything but a friend.” The cat-girl answered as she crossed her arms. “So why the hell are you bothering me?”

“Like I said, Lina,” The purple-haired man began with a smile, “I’m merely here to see how you are doing.” He placed a finger to his chin. “Although, it might interest you to know that things around this place aren’t as peaceful as they seem.”

Ranma raised a curious eyebrow as she stared on at the mazoku. “What do you mean by that?” Leave it to a demon to figure out the little secrets to a place.

“The snake responsible for your current situation is still alive, and is slithering around this school from within the darkness, trying to return to its normal body.”

“Eh?” The cat-girl asked as she attempted to figure out the vague statement. How could a snake be responsible for any situation of hers, and what did he mean by it still being alive? Of course, he probably didn’t literally mean a snake, but a person of some sort who was thought to be dead. After a few more minutes of thought, her eyes lit up. “By current situation,” She began slowly, “You’re talking about how I have to go through a second life due to being killed in my previous one, right?”

‘She figured that out quicker than I thought she would.’ Xellos thought to himself. He anticipated that it would have at least taken her some more time to figure out.

Ranma slammed a fist into her left hand. “Then that must mean the ‘snake’ you’re talking about is Voldemort, since he was thought to be dead, and he was responsible for killing me.” Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. It seemed as if her chance to kick the jackass’s behind for killing her wasn’t out of her reach. “What’s he doing here, and what do you mean by him trying to return to a normal body?”

“I’m afraid that you’ll have to figure out all of that by yourself.” The purple-haired mazoku answered with a smile. “I’m merely letting you know that there’s something going on around here.”

“Oh c’mon!” Ranma whined as she teleported over to the branch he was on. “Can’t you at least tell me a little more of what you know? Like how is he sneaking around without being seen?”

“He is seen, but he is also hidden.” Xellos answered as he got to his feet. “You’ll have to figure out everything else one your own, though, because where’s the fun in secrets if you are just told the answer?” He gave a small wave as he vanished, a second before a fast claw swipe shredded away some of the bark on the tree.

“Ass…” The cat-girl mumbled in annoyance. She now knew that Voldemort was hidden in the area somehow, but she had absolutely no idea of anything else. As far as she knew, this could all be a wild goose chase.

Deciding that she should probably head back inside, Ranma hopped off of the tree branch and landed back on the ground. After taking a few steps, she suddenly found herself having to jump backwards to avoid a small blur. ‘What the hell?’ She asked herself as she stared in the direction of the blur, only to blink when she saw what it was. ‘An… otter?’ Why was an otter trying to attack her?

The creature leapt at her again, causing the cat-girl to constantly duck and dodge out of the way of the attacks. ‘What’s going on here?’ She couldn’t remember doing anything to earn the wrath of this creature, so there shouldn’t be any reason for it. “Will you knock it off?!” Ranma yelled as she brought her leg down to kick the thing upside the head, but missed as the thing managed to grab hold of her of her foot and bounce off. In the process, though, she was able to get a good look at the otter’s face.

“Happosai.” She said in annoyance as she turned towards the annoying man. The tiny pervert was dressed in an otter costume, with only his eyes showing. It was apparent that he also took precaution in covering up his scent so that he wouldn’t be easily discovered by her sense of smell. Why was it that her two least favorite people decided to annoy her on the same day? At least she was in an area with less student traffic, so there wasn’t that much of a risk of her being discovered talking to either of them. “Err-- What’s with the otter outfit?”

“It’s so I don’t get discovered, of course!” Happosai responded as if it were obvious. “So, Ranma, you thought you could get rid of me with that weird trick of yours?”

“Not really.” Ranma said as she placed her arms behind her head. “Although, I did kind of hope that the whole thing would have killed you, so that the entire world would finally be free from your perversions.”

The aged martial arts master got into a ready stance. “Well it didn’t, you little brat, and now that I’ve seen your little trick with the dirt and rocks, I can anticipate and avoid it. You won’t be able to pull that one on me again.”

‘As if that’s the only thing I’m able to do.’ Ranma thought with a roll of her eyes. “So why are you here, old letch? Do you want revenge on me for what I did to you last time?” She could blast him away with a powerful bit of wind magic at any moment if he attempted to attack her.

Happosai shook his head in response. “Not at all, Ranma. I’m merely here to make you my disciple.”

“Yeah? Well I’m gonna-- Wha?” The redhead asked in outright confusion. “You’ve gotta be kidding. Why should I agree to that, or why are you even saying that?”

The tiny pervert sat down on the ground and crossed his legs as he pulled out a pipe. “It’s a very simple matter, girl. I’ve spent a great deal of time building up the school of Anything Goes, and I’m not about to let it die out just because of the fact that the current generation of Tendos and Saotomes don’t have the drive for martial arts.”

‘I can understand that.’ Ranma thought to herself with a small nod. Neither Akane nor Kasumi’s children had any real interest in the art, and Nabiki didn’t even have children yet. Nodoka and Genma’s daughter -- born not that long after Ranma reunited with Nodoka -- also lacked a desire for martial arts. As such, Anything Goes could be considered a dying art.

“As such,” Happosai continued, “I’m going to take you under my wing. You’re going to be the heir to the school once again. I won’t really be able to start training you until you’re older and out of this place, though.” As well as when her body matured into a more pleasing form, but she didn’t need to know that area of his thoughts. “So once--”

“No thanks.” The cat-girl said as she teleported away, leaving the aged pervert to stand around in shock.

‘No thanks?’ He repeated with a couple blinks. He was almost certain that the redhead would jump at the chance to be an heir to the Anything Goes again. How could she turn down such a generous offer from him? ‘This is unacceptable.’ There was no way that he was going to let the school just die out like that, and no matter how he had to do it, he would convince that little upstart to listen to him.

As she reappeared back inside the castle, Ranma decided to walk on back to her house common room instead of quickly teleporting and phasing there. Doing so provided a good time for her to think about what the bothersome letch had told her just a moment ago. As much as the idea of being the heir to the Anything Goes again interested her, she just couldn’t find herself actually agreeing to go along with it.

If the same opportunity had been presented to her a few years back, she would have probably jumped at the chance to return to her previous goal. She knew very well, however, that martial arts could only get one so far, and the idea of having to sit down in one place and manage a dojo was not something that interested her. There was an entire universe out there that was home to so many possibilities for her to experience, and she could get much more accomplished through the use of her scientific mind than she could through teaching martial arts. She didn’t like the idea of being stuck on a single planet and doing something where a majority of her talents would go to waste.

‘I should probably re-think my goal of becoming an Auror.’ Ranma thought to herself with a frown. The idea was becoming less and less appealing to her the more she thought about it.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

On the morning of Halloween, Ranma found herself awoken by the strong aroma of baking pumpkin. The various spices and scents wafting through the school managed to play havoc with her nose. While everything smelled delicious, and she couldn’t wait until the feast later that night, Ranma found herself unable to smell anything else amidst the powerful aromas saturating the castle. The spices latched onto the inside of her sensitive nose, tickling her countless smell receptors and causing her to constantly run her hand across it in an effort to remove the odors that were no starting to turn unpleasant.

Halloween had managed to easily sneak up on the young cat-girl, thanks to the fact that she had a proper work schedule to occupy her time. She was no longer working to exhaustion and constantly tired, but she was busy enough that she didn’t really have any time for just lounging around. That didn’t mean, however, that she was incapable of taking any kind of break. As long as she stayed on task and refrained from causing trouble, Washu allowed her to take the weekends -- or any two days of her choice -- off from her studies so that she could get a little rest. If there was any sign of Ranma getting out of line, though, then she could kiss her break days goodbye.

To the young redhead, the day was rather uneventful and boring for being a holiday. In Charms, Professor Flitwick had decided to finally teach everyone how to make objects fly. While the prospect of learning the spell didn’t excite Ranma as much as it did everybody else, she figured that it could probably serve as some kind of use at some later point.

Flitwick divided everyone into pairs to practice the spell, giving each of them a large feather and telling them to take turns trying to levitate it. “Now don’t forget the wrist movements that we’ve been practicing.” The tiny man said from on top of his stack of books. “As I was telling my previous class less than an hour ago, swish and flick. How you pronounce the magic words is also important, because we can never forget what happened to the wizard Baruffio.”

Ignoring the professor’s comments regarding the misadventures of the buffalo wizard, Ranma immediately went to work practicing the proper wand movements for the spell. Like all of the spells she learned, she would take some time later on to practice performing them without her wand so that she could get a feel for how each spell pattern moved within her. Doing so helped her to dissect each spell and figure out just how they worked, allowing her to improve upon faults she found and enhancing others to become more powerful.

After taking a minute to watch her partner -- a Ravenclaw girl -- fail again and again to move the feather even one millimeter, Ranma simply raised her wand to give it a swish and flick. “Wingardium Leviosa.” Just as soon as the words left her mouth, the feather in front of them levitated off of the table and rose up high into the air.

“Excellent work, Miss Malfoy.” Prof. Flitwick squeaked happily. As usual, she was the first one in her class to properly manage the assignment. “It looks as if Miss Negash has also--”

The feather that Gosaria had managed to levitate into the air instantly exploded without warning, causing the blonde to fall backwards out of her chair and bump her head against the desk behind her. “Owwwie….” She let out as she rubbed the lump on the back of her head.

“Are you feeling alright, Miss Negash?” Flitwick asked in concern as he hopped off of his books and made his way over to the blonde.

“That was so amazing!” Gosaria announced with an excited look. “The feather was floating happily in the air without a care in the world, but it knew that its wondrous time flying around would come to an end. Not wanting to be grounded again for the rest of its life, it decided to destroy itself by exploding and take its memories with it!” She glanced towards the area that the feather had previously occupied. “Such devotion to something it loved with all of its heart.”

Everyone in the room stared long and hard at the blonde as they attempted to figure out just how she managed to reach a conclusion like that. Several of them decided that it would be in their good health to just ignore the odd ramblings of the obviously disturbed girl. After-all, she was friends with both Lina Malfoy and Nashigi Scaliston, and everyone knew how difficult it was to make sense of those three. Hermione Granger could also be seen with the trio from time to time, but many considered her to be the only ‘sane one’ of the group. How she was able to do it was something that could be up for debate.

Ranma, meanwhile, could be seen with her forehead resting in the palm of her hand and attempting to just ignore what was going on. ‘At least she levitated it before it exploded.’ She thought to herself.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Oooo, that Ron Weasley is such a jerk!” Hermione complained as soon as she met up with her friends. “I try to be nice and help him on how to properly say Wingardium Leviosa -- where you have to make the ‘gar’ part nice and long, -- but the jerk then goes on about me acting like an annoying Miss Know-it-all just because I decided to take a moment to help my assignment partner out.” She placed her hands to her hips. “Hmph, I wish I had been sorted into Ravenclaw. At least there I wouldn’t have to put up with that asinine pinhead.”

Ranma, Gosaria, and Nashigi couldn’t help but sweat-drop as they watched the normally calm and collected girl rage about the youngest Weasley brother. ‘Note to self,’ The three thought, ‘Never anger Hermione.’

“And then I overheard him telling Harry that the reason I don’t have any ‘normal’ friends is because I’m too annoying for everyone else to handle, and that if it weren’t for you three, I’d be all by myself.”

“We’re not normal?” Gosaria asked with a look saying that this was news to her.

“Well, I don’t know about Lina,” Nashigi spoke up, “But I think I can speak for the three of us when I say that we’re as normal as can be.” A fan to the back of the head knocked the older girl to the ground.

“Since when was he the authority on what is and isn’t normal?” Ranma asked as she flipped the fan around in her hand. She didn’t even think that there was such a thing as ‘normal’ anymore. At least, not after all of the things that she had seen an experienced throughout her life. “And considering how oddball many of the witches and wizards in history were, I don’t think anybody is able to tote around the word ‘normal’.”

Hermione gave a small nod as she thought about it. The wizarding world didn’t make all that much sense in the long run, and many of the magic users she read about in the text books did seem to not be all there. “You’re right! Where does he get off saying that I’M not normal?”

Gosaria tapped her chin. “Maybe he’s just jealous that you’re doing loads better than him even though you are from a Muggle family, and so he feels that his pride has been damaged? There’s also the fact that he and Lina don’t get along very well, and since the both of you are friends, his view of either of you kind of suffers.” She noticed the looks that her friends were sending her way. “What? Did I say something wrong?”

“There definitely is something hiding in that cloudy head of yours.” Ranma mumbled. The blonde frequently showed that she wasn’t ignorant. She just had an incredibly odd pattern of thinking that she tended to get lost within.

“It’s not going to hurt me, is it?” Gosaria asked with a hint of worry as she placed her hands on her head and attempted to feel around it.

“No, Gosaria, it’s not.” Hermione answered as she shook her head. “Though I think I’m more worried about its safety than anything else.” She added in a mumble.


When it came time for the Halloween feast, the group of four quickly made their way to the Great Hall. Upon entering, they saw a vast number of pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns strewn about the Hall, with many of them replacing the normal floating candles. Around a thousand live bats could also be seen flying around the area in a large, thick black cloud. Without warning, the congregation of bats changed course and swooshed down directly towards Ranma, who was left alone as everyone else jumped out of the way.

“Damn it!” The cat-girl could be heard shouting from within the living cloud. “They’re going to get tangled up in my hair and mess it up!” She was definitely not looking forward to having to fix up her hair again because of a bunch of flying jerks.

When the bat cloud had finally left her, Ranma quickly pulled out a mirror to examine her hair. What she instantly noticed, however, was that just a few small strands of it were out of place, and not the mess that she was expecting. “Oh, wait, that’s right… echolocation.” The bats were able to easily miss her, and so she shouldn’t have worried about it in the first place.

Nashigi gave the redhead a small nudge. “You know, that’s the first time I’ve ever seen you act girly over something.”

“What?” Ranma asked as she fixed up the strands that were out of place. “I hate it when my hair gets messed up.” It had absolutely nothing to do with being girly or anything.

“Lina, you have a bat on your shoulder.” Gosaria pointed out.

Ranma turned her head to see that she did, indeed, have one on to her. It was a tiny bat, and was clinging tightly to her clothing. “Hey, shoo, get out of here.” The redhead said, but found that the creature wouldn’t listen to her at all. It was merely intent on holding on to her and nuzzling her shoulder with its nose. “Go, get, fly away and join your friends.”

“You know, Kitty Ears,” Pansy said as she walked up to the redhead. Next to her was Millicent and a couple other Slytherin girls. “I always knew that you were a little--”

The cat-girl’s hand quickly reached out and grabbed the girl by the nose. “Do not even think of finishing that sentence.” Her heterochromatic eyes showed that she meant exactly what she said, because she was not about to let herself become the center of a lame pun.

The short-haired girl raised her hands in a warding gesture to the response. “No need to bring out the claws, kitty.” She said as she started to walk off. “You do seem to get along well with the animals, though. Maybe you have a future as the next gamekeeper of this school. I’m sure that you’d feel more at home in the wild.”

“Sounds fun.” Ranma answered as she quickly appeared in front of the girl. “Perhaps I could then take you on a trip through the forest and see just how long you can survive?” She gave Pansy a friendly smile, but the eyes that accompanied it were full of sinister amusement. “I’m certain that the creatures of the forest would just love you to death.”

“You’re mentally imbalanced.” Millicent stated nervously. “You realize that, don’t you?”

“Of course I do.” The redhead answered with wide eyes as she sat down at the table. “What do you think I am? Crazy?” She couldn’t help but find it fun to pretend that she was insane around these people and make them feel nervous. She had to be careful about it, though, because she could end up thinking that she actually was mad.

“Ooohohohoo, you certainly do act like it.” Nashigi stated in amusement as she and Gosaria sat down next to the redhead. Hermione had already gone over to sit at the Gryffindor table. The three of them knew full well that the cat-girl was merely pretending to be crazy for amusement, but that didn’t stop the older girl from having her own fun with the issue. “By the way, Lina, did you know that you still have that bat on your shoulder?”

Ranma nodded in response as she turned her head to look at it. “It refuses to get away from me, and I don’t really feel like forcing it to leave since it’s not really doing anything harmful.” Besides, if the bats posed a health risk to the students or anything, they wouldn’t be in the castle. It also wasn’t like she had anything to worry about if she were bitten, thanks to her immune system.

“Why didn’t Laira come?” Gosaria asked. “I would have thought that she’d like to try out some foods from the feast.”

“She’s being lazy and doesn’t want to leave the dorm.” Ranma answered, earning a mental pout from the cabbit in question. “She wanted me to snatch up a few things to give to her later, though.” As soon as she finished speaking, the golden plates in front of them instantly filled up with a plethora of different foods.

Not wasting any time, Ranma helped herself by taking a little of everything and adding each to a part of her plate. The baked ham was the first on her list to try, and she decided to save the cakes and pies for last. “Nothing can spoil this feast!” She said with a slight laugh as she bit down on the ham.

Not a second later, Professor Quirrell came sprinting into the Great Hall, his turban askew and terror visible on his face. Cursing under her breath, Ranma watched as the man ran up to the staff table. “Troll!” He shouted. “In the dungeons-- thought you ought to know.” He promptly collapsed to the ground soon after.

Shocked silence reigned in the Hall fallowing that spectacle, but it soon gave way to just about everyone panicking and screaming in terror. “Oh c’mon, it’s just a little troll running around in the dungeons.” Ranma commented as she went back to eating. “Nothing to worry about.”

Dumbledore finally managed to silence everyone after several exploding purple firecrackers. “Silence!” He shouted. “Prefects, I want you to--”

He wasn’t able to get out what he wanted to say due to the troll in question suddenly appearing in the entry way of the Great Hall, causing all of the students to resume panicking. As quick as they all could, they jumped out of their seats and ran to safety at the edge of the room closest to the staff table. Quirrell, meanwhile, swore silently to himself over the fact that the troll wasn’t even supposed to be there, and how it was ruining his plans.

The only ones who didn’t run away from their seats like frightened chickens were Ranma, Nashigi, and Gosaria. The three of them continued to eat despite the fact that there was a 12-foot-tall and dull, granite grey-skinned troll standing just inside the entryway. Said troll gave off a few small sniffs as it glanced around and saw all of the food sitting on the tables, and even though it noticed all of the students and teachers on the other side of the Hall, its main focus was on the three girls who were still eating.

“What are you three doing?!” McGonagall asked as she pulled out her wand, ready to fight off the troll. “Do you realize how dangerous that troll is?” The sheer ignorance they were showing. When the troll was taken care of, there would be quite a bit of detention to be had for their behavior.

“I’ll handle this!” Prof. Flitwick announced as he made his way forward. He wasn’t about to let some students get attacked by a troll, even if they did refuse to move to safety. Pulling out his wand, he pointed it at the creature.

The troll gave a grunt and a snort as it waved its club around. The puny wizard was obviously no match for it.

“Oh knock it off?” The cat-girl said as she held her palm out and fired off an energy blast, hitting the troll and sending it careening into the opposite wall.

Everyone looked on in shock at the spot where the troll had been blasted to, and all they could see was a large hole in the wall. There was no noise from the troll, and so they couldn’t tell if it was still alive or not. All they knew was that their resident cat-girl had simply fired off some weird energy and dealt with the thing as quickly as that. Most -- if not all -- of the Slytherins felt frightened that the girl could be so powerful, and could just fire things off without warning that have enough power to defeat a 12-foot-tall troll.

“Hmm-- Interesting way to handle it.” Flitwick stated with a blink as he lowered his wand. It seemed that they didn’t need to worry about the girls after-all.

“Damn troll thinking it could keep me away from my food.” Ranma grumbled in annoyance. For a brief moment, she found herself wondering if Washu would appreciate the gift of a troll for study. Then again, it wasn’t like she would be able to get much of interest out of a creature that she would consider barely sentient. Out of the corner of her eye, Ranma noticed Prof. Snape quickly making his way out of the hall, but paid it no mind. “Hey, drop my baked potato, Nashigi!”

It was no surprise at all that the topic of discussion for the next few days would center on the female Malfoy sibling and the weird powers and abilities that she possessed.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Author’s Notes:
None at the moment.

[Dumbledork]

Now THAT's how you deal with a pesky troll, although it would have been funny if Lina had pulled something completely unexpected... like inviting the troll for dinner. Maybe the poor thing was just hungry, and it might give Lina an interesting new friend.

Have you nay further plans for the bat? Would make for an interesting familiar.

[Ellen Kuhfeld]

Now THAT's how you deal with a pesky troll, although it would have been funny if Lina had pulled something completely unexpected... like inviting the troll for dinner. Maybe the poor thing was just hungry, and it might give Lina an interesting new friend.

I like the sound of that. And since Lina can phase through its teeth or club if needed, it'd be a safe experiment.

[KonokoHasano]

I could always make it an omake/extra scene at the end of the chapter. I already have plans to do an omake/extra scene showing an overworked Ranma basically collapsing onto Hermione's shoulders and babbling on about nonsense. XD

And I have thought about having the little bat make occasional future appearances. Perhaps it becomes attached to Ranma, and so it decides to appear whenever it can.


I also need to go back to chapter four and include another scene at the end of the chapter detailing Ranma finding out about her eyesight issue and obtaining a pair of glasses. XD

[Dumbledork]

Yay for the bat!

[Cheb]

So she blew her cover... I mean, displayed her true power level for everyone to see.
For the sake of food.
Yeah, that's definitely Lina.
I wonder what would she think of herself when the feeding frenzy is over?

>that were no starting to turn unpleasant.
Huh?

[Konsaki]

"Oh knock it off?"
I'm thinking her offhanded statement should have read "Oh, knock it off!" as the context shows it being more an exclamation than a question.

[KonokoHasano]

Cheb: It was bound to happen sooner or later. XD

She'd probably feel a bit annoyed at first that she let herself get carried away. However, the attention she'd be getting after the fact is something that she'd be secretly reveling in. If you think about it, while growing up at the Masaki home, she never really stood out or had anything truly unique except for her magic, and even then she was limited in what she could actually do for the first several years. Everyone else outshone her spectacularly.

At Hogwarts, though, she has a plethora of unique abilities, she's physically better than everyone else, her magic outshines them all, and she basically stands out like a hippo in a wolf pack. The attention she receives for it -- both good and bad -- could be considered a natural high of sorts, and even though she insists on not liking the attention, she's going to continue drawing it to herself, and one of those ways is scaring the people in Slytherin by pretending to be crazy and unhinged.

Of course, who's to say that Ranma ISN'T crazy and unhinged in actuality, and is just trying to convince herself that she's not so? She is, after all, a mad scientist's apprentice, and all those years spent around Washu couldn't have been good for her psyche.


And yeah, I'll have to find that sentence in the chapter, figure out what I was trying to say, and fix it. Thanks for pointing it out. ^_^


Konsaki: Ah, I forgot to change the question mark. What I originally put was "Oh knock it off, will you?" I ended up removing the 'will you', but accidentally left the question mark. XD

[Spokavriel]

Better late than never. Hope that it isn't too late.

No, there was absolutely no way that two 13-year-olds boys -- despite having the know-how to get around the school quickly -- could possibly set up something throughout the entire school AND infiltrate all four houses, all the while making it so that everything happened at nearly the exact same thing.

Exact same time.

It must be at least over two meters tall, and its paws seem large enough to crush whole garbage bins.

Was that reducing it to the book proportions because the movie edition of Fluffy the Cerberus had each head at nearly 2 meters tall, not counting necks or body.

However, if you know what to look for, then you can develop objects that are able to easily drown out the mana so that it all ends up becoming a non-issue.

This explanation is rather weak. I'd rather go with something more like. "If anyone would bother to chart the effects of the Mana it becomes really easy to make a device designed to accept or ignore those effects as needed." What you have now makes it sound like Stringy 2.0 is somehow overpowering one of the oldest most concentrated patches of residual mana in the world.

You Still haven't described most of the pranks just that they all happened at once. It's kinda anticlimactic.

“I can understand that. Having a school where nothing seems to be happening at all tends to make it feel torturous to remain at all day, every day.”

I think you got all day every day mixed up with something else.

The universal genius said as she gave the younger redhead next to her a pat on.

A pat or did you lose the word to say where she was patting?

Could you please add a description of the fall out of the pranks beyond the hints in the meeting with Dumbledore? I between the buildup and everything nothing that happened to students of the common rooms gets mentioned and well what about the other areas of the school outside of the houses all that is mentioned is bathrooms. It doesn't have to be detailed but even complaints from people in the Great Hall about things they had encountered or have had to deal with from the prank would help flesh it out.

Post 2

I wish you would have typed out that scene with Granger in the Library.

The spices latched onto the inside of her sensitive nose, tickling her countless smell receptors and causing her to constantly run her hand across it in an effort to remove the odors that were no starting to turn unpleasant.

now lost a w

Shocked silence reigned in the Hall fallowing that spectacle, but it soon gave way to just about everyone panicking and screaming in terror.

following

Cute way of handling the Troll. Simple and fun.

Comments on comments

I could always make it an omake/extra scene at the end of the chapter. I already have plans to do an omake/extra scene showing an overworked Ranma basically collapsing onto Hermione's shoulders and babbling on about nonsense. XD

Does it have to be an Omake I'd still really love to see that scene actually in the chapter.

Hippo in a Wolf Pack. I would have at least gone for another predator say a Grizzly Bear a Hippo while dangerous in its own right is sluggish and well couldn't ever keep up with the pack. The bear on the other hand could easily manage. And even exceed the pack in places.

[KonokoHasano]

Spokavriel: Thanks for the corrections. ^_^


As for the fallout from the prank, it'd be a little difficult to actually explain what all happened when it comes to that kind of level. I'm not really sure how to describe it, even though I do have some thoughts on what happened. Honestly, I do feel unhappy with how I handled it, but I just can't think of what else to actually do.


I've definitely considered the scene, but with how things are written, it would be slightly difficult to worm it in that spot without making it seem like a random and unneeded time jump. I could probably try and include it by rewording the paragraph to give me a leeway into it. I suppose that I could also do a flashback scene, but I have issues with breaking up the flow to do that kind of thing. Eh, I'll probably figure it out.

I'm currently working on a rewrite of the first chapter of the side story. I ended up doing away with the previous first chapter, and made the second chapter be the first chapter. A few things in the first chapter can be incorporated in another chapter, or made mention of. After that, I'll try and get back to figuring out if I can incorporate the library scene in this chapter, and I'll get back to fix the ending scene in chapter four.

[Spokavriel]

Have you ever been to a sporting event where there's a car accident by one of the entrances to the parking lot? Even if you didn't have to deal with it you can tell just how big a mess it is by the comments in the crowd complaining about it before the game starts.

Something like that could easily be done in the great hall with easily overheard comments about what people are having to deal with in the fallout of the prank.

[KonokoHasano]

I ended up revising the start of the chapter to show more of what happened during the prank. However, I also made it clear that there were A LOT more things that happened throughout the school that just couldn't be described...



When the following morning arrived, the entire school found itself in a state of complete and total chaos. Somehow, during the course of one night, an innumerable amount of pranks had been put together and orchestrated in such a way that allowed almost everything to go off at almost exactly the same time. One such example was that nearly every toilet in the castle was set up to simultaneously explode at exactly 6:00AM, flooding many of the corridors that housed restrooms.

All of the staircases in the school had also been modified. Somehow, the ‘stairs’ were no longer there, and instead, they were now steep slopes that only allowed people to travel downward and not up. Large whoopee cushions were magically placed directly at the end of each flight of stepless stairs, so that the noise would echo throughout the castle every time someone slid onto it. The cushions were also capable of inflating themselves back up as soon as someone stepped off of them.

That was merely the very tip of the iceberg, though, as almost every single area of the school was touched in at least some way. Both Snape’s classroom and office were filled with colorful, living flowers as a light source illuminated the room, while many of his robes were modified into bright and cheerful colors. Filch found his office suddenly filled with a variety of different plushies, and even found a few signs saying ‘Don’t worry, be happy’ with hearts on them hanging around the room. All of the desks in the Transfiguration classroom were transformed into pigs and allowed to run around the room and cause havoc.

Even all four of the school’s house common rooms suffered some form of prank.

Hufflepuff found its common room covered in multi-colored marshmallows, with globs of melted marshmallows splattered across the walls. Chocolate and graham crackers were also scattered about the room, making the place look like it was right out of a Hansel and Gretel story. Of course, the similarity was lost to many of the Hufflepuffs who had never even heard of the tale.

Many Ravenclaws found themselves waking up with quills and paper glued to their hands. For those who didn’t, they were treated to the sight of their own common room covered in multi-colored glitter and streamers. Several of the female Ravenclaws were embarrassed and enraged to find that some of their undergarments were glued to the walls or hanging from the ceiling. Quintinsy himself was furious to find out that his hair had been restyled in the shape of a bee hive and re-colored purple and green.

Gryffindors were treated to the sight of their common room painted in a very bright pink, with many of the students themselves finding out that someone had doodled on their faces as they slept. The Gryffindors who found themselves unlucky enough to be in the common room at around 6:45AM were instantly the victims of a sudden barrage of green slime. Ron was both shocked and annoyed when he saw that Scabbers had been strapped to a paper plane that was enchanted to magically fly around the room just out of his reach.

Slytherins woke up to a song being played throughout their dorm that managed to cause shivers to travel down their spines. The song consisted of what sounded like a little girl giggling evilly as she sang a sinister rendition of the tune ‘The Cat Came Back’. It didn’t help that their common room was covered what almost looked like scratch marks and gashes. Red paint was splattered all around as well, giving the impression that there had been some kind of wild beast attack. Plush cats grinned evilly as they hung from the ceiling by their necks, and a hidden holo projector situated close to the dorm steps managed to scare many students into thinking that an actual tiger was going to attack them.

The sheer chaos and insanity that the school found itself going through could not properly be described. Each passing moment seemed to bring to light more and more things that had been tampered with and set loose throughout the school; never in the history of Hogwarts had there ever been such an event of that caliber.

At first, it was assumed that the Weasley Twins were responsible for the school-wide prank, but it instantly became apparent to anyone with a brain that they were not the culprits. Not only did they seem to be as shocked as everyone else was, but neither of them would have kept silent if such a huge job as this was something that they pulled off. They would be gloating and laughing all the way to whatever kind of detention the prank netted them, and they’d still make sure to have themselves be known as the ones who caused something so wide-scale. There was also the fact that they -- in no possible way -- could have done most of the things that had happened.

No, there was absolutely no way that two 13-year-olds boys -- despite having the know-how to get around the school quickly -- could possibly set up something that intricate throughout the entire school AND infiltrate all four houses, all the while making it so that everything happened at nearly the exact same thing. This was definitely way beyond what either of them was capable of.

Another possibility was peeves, but the poltergeist was both too lazy to trouble himself with something so complex, and couldn’t possibly obtain all of the needed materials to pull the entire thing off.

The only other person that they could even suspect was a certain 11-year-old, redheaded cat-girl who went by the name of Lina Inversia Malfoy. She had the abilities to get anywhere in the castle without being seen, and she could probably visit every single area of the castle in a single night by sticking to the walls, floors, and ceilings, while phasing through doors and walls to reach rooms. Following that, it would seem likely that she could infiltrate each house without needing a password to gain entry. She was like a human ghost who could be anywhere, and you wouldn’t realize it until it was too late.

However, even if they knew that it was Lina Malfoy’s doing, they were at a loss as to just how she was able to do it. How could an 11-year-old girl -- even with all of her strange abilities -- possibly plan out the entire thing without anybody else knowing? How exactly did she come to know the exact locations of the other three houses? Where did she get all of the materials necessary to pull everything off so fluidly, and just how did she carry it all around? Any other person would need a ton of preparation and time to make it happen, but she managed to carry it all out in just a few short hours.

Despite the fact that said female Malfoy sibling floated just above a large crowd of speechless students -- giggling sinisterly with an expression of barely contained amusement, -- did not mean that she was the culprit. After-all, her finding the ordeal absolutely hilarious could have merely meant that she had an odd sense of humor. Plus, there was no proof to show that it was her doing, so even if they knew, they couldn’t really do anything unless she came out and admitted it, and it didn’t seem as if she was going to anytime soon.

“So you really were the one who caused that entire prank?” Hermione asked with a frown as she accompanied Ranma, Gosaria, and Nashigi outside of the school. “How could you do something so irresponsible?” She added with a small frown. She couldn’t help but admit to herself secretly, though, that it was amazing how Lina was able to orchestrate such a huge event by herself. Still, she had to have at least broken almost every rule in doing so, and yet she managed to get away without any trouble.

“I was bored.” Ranma said simply with a straight face. “There’s no excitement in this place, and since every single class is so mind-numbingly easy, I have almost nothing to do to occupy my time. I had to do something to liven up this place.”

“Well, I can agree with you on the fact that all of the classes are rather easy.” Hermione replied as they all sat under a tree. “I mean, as long as people have read the text books and pay attention in class, there really should be no reason for anybody to constantly get behind in their work.” Of course, it still took her some time to get through homework, because she often needed to go back and re-read certain parts of the involved chapter pages. As such, while she could be done with her work before many others, she didn’t quite have an immense amount of time on her hands. Just how was Lina able to get through her homework quick enough to have so much free time?

“You did all of that just because you were bored?” Nashigi asked with a raised eyebrow, right before clasping onto the younger girl’s hand and giving the top of it a gentle pat. “Oh silly Lina; if only you would have told your dear friends. If you had, we could have helped you with your excruciatingly painful boredom.” She had to admit, though, she liked the stunt that the cat-girl pulled with boxes of cereal. It wasn’t every day that you got to see a box of Snape Chocula or Dumbledore Crunch.

[Spokavriel]

Um one thing. You might not want to emphasize this happening in an instant. It's just all of this was obviously in place before the toilets blew.

There is also a typo involving time.

, all the while making it so that everything happened at nearly the exact same thing.

I'm not so sure there would have been so many Hufflepuffs bewildered. After all consider what normal people are like. If you're not overly studious courageous or scheming you end up a Puff. So I'd think they would have enough people able to tell the others that story as soon as they saw the gingerbread.

Thank you for finally having some more pranks shown instead of only hinted at.

[Vilkath]

I really appreciate the pranks, especially mentioning the Cat Came Back song it fits on so many levels and would be incredibly funny. Though I think perhaps it should been limited to personal revenge pranks Lina might do against people who wronged her perhaps even her personal theme song that could play during her mad science cackling.

One thing I am having trouble understanding in the rewrite is Lina's temper, it seems just as bad as before even if her reactions are a little calmer. Yet the original explanation for the temper was the merging of her three personalities from at least two past lives with the current one. Considering this Ranma seems to almost given up on his past life, not really driven to do martial arts, not really fighting being a girl or even shammed by seeing other girls naked this time in the bath. Add to it the weaker connection to Nodoka and such due to him realizing she treats him badly in both lives while spoiling Sakura in every way Nodoka failed to treat him. Is the explanation for the behavior now just Lina's past life influence, or is some hidden depths of Ranma more angry about being born a girl then we have seen in the rewrite?

Even the original drive to become male doesn't seem to exist, along with accepting she is a child this Lina doesn't seem to care about being a girl much at all. While being honestly interested in Science is nice I did think the driving goal of Ranma having to invent the technology to turn herself back male was a nice touch in the original story and I am not really sure if it would apply here?

Only other issue seems to be how the students constantly said to fear Lina yet at least the slytherins seem to go out their way to provoke her as well. Started off with Flint touching a first year girl in places she didn't want to be touched. Yet only Lina seemed to get yelled at about that incident despite he was at least what a 5th year male student picking on a first year girl? Dumbledore in this story didn't really have any special reason be weary of Ranma to start with nor to single her out with the 'Harry Potter' treatment, IE everything is her fault and all her aggressors are innocent. I can understand punishing Lina for most her actions, she in very least was very destructive towards the castle but ignoring the people go around touching her, teasing her, destroying her paper work etc and only looking at the violent reaction seems a bit off. Even if Dumbledore and Snape would do such a thing Lina seems to be taking said punishments rather well despite no indication the instigators being punished at all.

As for future things to have Ranma work on I think a way hurt or drive off Xelos be a fair goal. This rewrite didn't have washu playing children songs or sappy tunes to drive the man off, nor did Ranma seem to learn that cute attacks hurt him due to the cute dress the orginal version had due to cutting back Xelos's interaction with Ranma before meeting Washu. Since this fic is still having the demon butt into Lina's life I would think she eventualy want research into ways to hurt the man since the brute force method failed to work.